(ORNL: Oak Ridge, TN) -- When Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico in 2017, winds snapped trees and destroyed homes while heavy rains transformed streets into rivers. But after the storm passed, the human toll continued to grow as residents struggled without electricity for months. Five years later, power outages remain long and frequent.

To provide more affordable, reliable, and sustainable electricity to underserved communities like these, scientists from the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are partnering with local organizations, nonprofits, and universities to build resilience into independent microgrids powered by renewable energy. ORNL is developing a technology that will manage groups of small microgrids as a cluster, enhancing their reliability even when damaged.

Microgrids are small networks that generally have their own energy supply from nearby renewable sources such as wind and solar. If battery storage is added, microgrids can be isolated and function independently in “island mode” when the broader utility network fails.

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